Paraplegic veteran still going full speed through life

In the corner of the emergency room, David Tims, a 52-year-old paraplegic with an American flag bandanna tied around his head, watches a nurse ready a bag of intravenous antibiotics.

Tims came to the George E. Wahlen Medical Center the previous night when his leg became inflamed with cellulitis. Since he was paralyzed 31 years ago, he has suffered from a number of illnesses that build over days and nights and finally break his tolerance to withstand the pain. This time, he said his usually numb right leg felt like it would explode.

Tims got out of his bed in Murray, rolled his wheelchair up a ramp into his converted Toyota Sienna minivan and drove to the hospital. The doctor gave him a dose of antibiotics and said to return the next day for more.

"I'm here for that happy juice," Tims says to his nurse in a raspy smoker's voice. His fire-orange sunglasses and blond ponytail cut a stark contrast to the three other men in her care. They are lying shirtless on examination tables next to him, all suffering from chest pain.

"I'm gonna be perfectly honest with you. I'm fixin' to go on an 11-day Mardi Gras type thing on Friday. It's your typical guy stuff. We'll be chasin' girls and gettin' drunk. I just want to make sure my antibiotics aren't goin' to mess this up."

Tims does not mention the impetus for the trip: the National Veterans Wheelchair Games in Spokane, Wash., which started Sunday. It is the largest annual wheelchair sports event in the world, with more 500 athletes participating this year.

Tims has competed every year since 1988, medaling more than 50 times in bowling, swimming and track.

He turns back to his nurse who is connecting the bag to a hose running into his hand.

"You're sure this is gonna be cool?" he asks one last time. The nurse is sure. "All right then. Put that baby in into high gear."

Meet David Tims. He is an alcohol-drinking, cigarette-smoking wheelchair athlete who will once again represent a state renowned for its pious sobriety.

Beneath this self-proclaimed hedonist is a man who has never resigned woefully in his wheelchair to the circumstances he has been dealt.

Tims was paralyzed in 1978, three years after he left the Army. He was jump starting his '67 Mercury Cougar in a parking lot in Modesto, Calif., when it dropped into gear and toppled him.